Rocket ship
A missile ship is a warship from which missiles are fired. Rocket ships were used in different epochs, which in the course of time resulted in a slightly different spectrum of uses.
19th century
A rocket ship of the 19th century was a naval warship that was armed with rockets. At that time the engineer William Congreve (inventor) was busy developing incendiary rockets , which were finally named after him. After these Congreve missiles were successfully used by the army, ships were later equipped with this weapon. Although these rockets were relatively unreliable and also very imprecise, they could cause serious fires in the enemy. In addition, this weapon, in combination with bombing, had a psychological effect that should not be underestimated, which led to demoralizing behavior among the enemy.
One of the most famous missile ships of the British-American War was the British HMS Erebus from 1807, which was used in the attack of Fort McHenry at the Battle of Baltimore from September 13-14, 1814 . The Erebus was equipped with 32-pound missile batteries that were mounted under the main deck. These were shot down through portholes or holes made in the fuselage.
The missile deployment must have been so impressive that it inspired the author of the US national anthem , Francis Scott Key , to write the following lines in his song The Star-Spangled Banner :
(...)
Were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there
(...)
Missile ships were also used by the Royal Navy in the attack against the French fleet off Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1806 and in the Second Naval Battle of Copenhagen . In 1809, three ships that took part in the naval battle at Basque Roads were armed with missiles : the HMS King George , the HMS Whiting and the HMS Nimrod .
In addition, however, smaller ships and boats of the Royal Navy were used as rocket ships. These then received one or more rocket launching devices that were mounted on a flexible mast so that it could then be aligned with the target to be combated.
20th century and present
In the 20th century, rocket ship is the term used within the Warsaw Pact and still today in Russia for ships that use anti-ship missiles as their main armament .
They can be differentiated into:
- Raketnij Krejser (missile cruiser, to be compared with the designation guided missile cruiser , e.g. Slawa class )
- Bolshoj Raketnij Korabl (large rocket ship, to be compared with the designation destroyer , e.g. Sovremennij class )
- Malinkij Raketnij Korabl (small rocket ship, to be compared with the designation missile speedboat or corvette , e.g. Tarantul class )
- Raketnij Kater (rocket cutter , to be compared with the name Schnellboot , e.g. Osa class )
literature
- Hans Mehl, Kurt Schäfer: The other German Navy . 2nd Edition. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-613-01675-3 .
- Marten Schmidt: Rügen's secret headland. The classified bug . 3rd updated edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-482-2 .